Pandan Chiffon Cake

For my grandma’s 80th birthday this year, I had to make it a really special cake for her big milestone year. I wanted to make a sweet Asian flavour inspired cake, but I had to make it look super special!! After some Instagramming, I was inspired by Andy Bowdy’s cakes and decided to make a ‘tactfully messy’ cake like this. I wanted it to be a 360 degree cake where it would look amazing at all angles when sitting in the middle of the dinner table.

Pandan Chiffon Cake with Chocolate Ganache and Torched Meringue

I cheated, and got my mum to bake the cake beforehand (a Pandan Chiffon Cake, *watch this space* for the recipe, I’m in the process of typing it up!) Pandan Chiffon cake is a light, fluffy sponge cake originated from Malaysia/Indonesia flavoured with the juices/essence from Pandan leaves.

I then made 2 x batches of buttercream icing recipe from the Basic Cookbook TM5 chip. Instead of Vanilla Bean Paste which I usually used, I replaced it with Pandan Essence that I bought from the local Asian grocery shop. It has a green colour and the beautiful sweet pandan smell.

I forgot to take pics of the base cake, but Chiffon Cakes are made with a cake pan with a hole in the middle to assist the cake rising higher and being super fluffy. My mum made 2 x cakes, I cut up part of one of the cakes into small cubes and filled the hole in the centre with a mix of Pandan buttercream, shredded coconut and the cubed Pandan chiffon cake.

I then covered the cake with the Pandan buttercream icing, and refrigerated for about an hour. In the meantime I made 2 x batches of the Chocolate Ganache from the Basic Cookbook TM5 chip and then ‘spooned’ it onto the top of the cake, dripping it down the sides first then filling the inside in with the remaining ganache. I then put it in the fridge to set.

Pandan Buttercream and Chocolate Ganache

Whilst it was setting, I made 2 x batches of meringue (in my Kitchenaid):

I used a spatula to drip the meringue on top of the cake and torched it with a blow torch to set, and kept adding layers above that, blow torching each spatula as I went so that it would set and give a firm-ish base for the meringue on top of that so that it would create some height. I made it into a kind of fountain shape so that it cascaded down one side.

Torched Meringue

Once the meringue was set (note: DO NOT PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE or it ‘sweats’), I then decorated it with the following:

Green Tea Mochi

Peanut Brittle

Green Tea Pokey Biscuits

Cookies and Cream Pokey Biscuits

Shredded coconut

Edible glitter

This was the first cake with the ‘torched meringue’ look and have loved making them since!!